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How to change the VMware backup concurrency
Updated over a week ago

This article applies to:

  • OS: CentOS

  • Product edition: Phoenix (Gov Cloud included)

Overview

This article provides the steps to change the default VMware backup concurrency.


πŸ’‘ Tip

With the default backup proxy configuration, you can back up up to three virtual machines in parallel.


Calculate concurrency

Assuming you have a backup proxy configuration of X vCPUs and Y GB RAM, the number of concurrent backups possible are calculated as follows:

Number of concurrent backups = Minimum {(X*0.7)/2, (Y-2)/1.3}

Example-1: For a setup having 16 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM:

Number of concurrent backups = Minimum { (16*0.7)/2 = 5.6, (16-2)/1.3 = 10.7 } = 5.6

Hence, you can run up to 6 concurrent backup operations (after rounding the last decimal).

You can also calculate the ideal RAM configuration required to save the system resources from the formula below:

Optimal RAM configuration required to run 6 concurrent backups = (6*1.3)+2 = 9.8

You can optimize your setup to 10 GB RAM (rounded to nearest available unit) since the number of concurrent backups is governed by the vCPU configuration. The converse is applicable if the number of concurrent backups is derived from the RAM configuration.

Change the VMware backup concurrency in Phoenix configuration file

  1. Stop the Phoenix Agent service.
    ​
    ​/etc/init.d/Phoenix stop
    ​

  2. Verify if any Phoenix processes are still running.
    ​
    ​ps -ef| grep -i Phoenix
    ​

  3. If any process is still found running, kill the process.
    ​
    ​Kill -9 <process id>
    ​

  4. Go to /etc/Phoenix/VMWARE.
    ​
    ​cd /etc/Phoenix/VMWARE
    ​

  5. Edit the Phoenix.cfg file using vi editor.
    ​
    ​vi Phoenix.cfg
    ​

  6. Change the maximum concurrent backups limit from 3 to n and save the file. (Where n is the new concurrency number.)
    ​
    For example, to change the concurrency to 8:
    ​
    ​VM_MAX_CONCURRENT_BACKUPS = 8
    ​

  7. Start the Phoenix Agent service on the backup proxy.
    ​
    ​/etc/init.d/Phoenix start

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